


i gotta know

by orphan_account



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, M/M, Metafiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-06
Updated: 2013-01-06
Packaged: 2017-11-23 21:22:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/626656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and Bunny are rival BNFs. As luck would have it, they get assigned to each other on a Reverse Bang event.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this prompt](http://rotg-kink.dreamwidth.org/1511.html?thread=1399271#cmt1399271) on the kink_meme.

> Pitch Black (fearsmith) wrote in fandom_wank, 
> 
> One of the most anticipated anime this fall is _Boys for All Seasons_ , which is based on the hugely successful manga of the same name. Basically, the manga follows the lives of the twelve anthropomorphized months of the year as they try to get by in modern-day Japan.
> 
> If you're familiar with this manga, then you may have already heard there was some wank about it a while back. It started when well-known fanartist bunnymundy had the _gall_ to give crit on a fic in last year's bfas_xmasxchange. After reveals, the writer in question  turned out to be old-man-winter, who's one of the fandom's top fic writers.
> 
> Naturally, hilarity ensues when their respective camps rise up in arms to defend their poor BNFs in a flame war that _still_ hasn't been resolved to this day.
> 
> Anyway, to the surprise of absolutely _no one_ , bunnymundy and old-man-winter are at it again. A while ago, bunnymundy wrote a meta-post about the significance of March and April celebrating Easter together. Not five minutes later, old-man-winter replies with a less than agreeable comment, which then explodes into a 68-page fight of epic proportions. Trust me, it's a gold mine.
> 
>  

Tooth falls off the couch from laughing so hard and Jack catches sight of actual tears in her eyes. "It's _not_ funny," he mutters, angrily closing his laptop with a cringeworthy "smack!"

"Oh yes it is," coughs Tooth, sitting up. It takes her a few seconds to regain her composure. "You and bunnymundy are like a comedy duo."

"Except _I'm_ a hell of a lot funnier than he is," says Jack. "Seriously, my comment wasn't even that bad. You'd think I murdered his mother or something when I said that Easter wasn't as important as Christmas."

"And that right there is your problem," says Tooth, smiling sweetly. Jack sticks his tongue out in response, which earns a laugh from his best friend. "Speaking of bunnymundy, d'you think he's gonna do Reverse Bang this year?" she asks.

Jack snorts. "Probably, the jerk just _loves_ the attention. I feel sorry for whoever's gonna be his writer this year."

"You already picked your prompt, right?"

"Yep." Jack’s been in the BfAS fandom for a few years now and written for a bunch of challenges, but his favourite so far has been the Reverse Big Bang. Incidentally, it's also one of the biggest challenges in the fandom.

Unlike regular big bangs, reverse big bangs allow artists to decide what to draw and the writers who get paired with them have to write something based on their art. When artist sign-ups open, the artists anonymously submit a prompt or general description of what they want to draw. The mods post the prompts then open sign-ups for writers, who pick which prompts they want to write for on a first-come, first-served basis—also anonymously. The writer sign-ups just closed today, followed by an announcement that the mods will be sending assignments out at the end of the week.

"Man, wouldn't it be funny if you got bunnymundy this year?" asks Tooth.

Jack shudders. "Don't even joke about that, _please_."


	2. Chapter 2

When Aster finally drags himself out of bed and into the kitchen for some much-needed coffee, he finds North and Sandy glaring at each other across the kitchen/dining table with both of their laptops opened and half a dozen sheets of paper spread out around them.

Ah shit, it's way too early for this.

"Uh, mornin'?" he tries hesitantly. He glances at the clock on the wall and realizes that he's off by two hours. 

North suddenly whips his head around to face him, his eyes lighting up with a gleam that makes Aster wish he were still asleep. He's seen that gleam before--once, it resulted in Sandy posting bail for him and North in their senior year of college. To be honest, he still can't remember how they ended up in jail the first place and he's not sure he wants to know.

"Ah good, voice of reason is here," says North in a booming voice, as per usual.

"But I don't wanna be the voice of reason," Aster protests, even as North fixes him with a look that tells him he's not leaving until whatever he and Sandy are arguing about is settled. He sighs in defeat and, after coming to peace with the fact that he isn't getting coffee any time soon, joins them at the table. Sometimes, he really doesn't like his roommates. 

"Look here," says North, picking up a piece of paper and pointing to the sketch on it. "This is good character design, yes? Arctic princess _must_ wear heavy fur to protect from the snow. It is simply practical." 

North and Sandy have been working on a fantasy webcomic for about two years now. All three of them met in their first year at SCAD. Aster and Sandy were fresh out of high school and North had just gotten his green card after emigrating from Russia. Aster and Sandy were instantly drawn to North when they walked into their mandatory painting class while everyone else had been scared off by the middle-aged Russian who looked like he used to be a mobster. The three of them struck up a strange friendship that culminated in them moving in together in second year and sticking with each other even after graduation.

But right now, Sandy looks like he'd rather be anywhere else but here. Aster is half-certain that if he concentrates hard enough, he might be able to detect some smoke rising from his ears. "What's the problem, mate?" he asks.

Sandy also points to the sketch and looks displeased. Aster takes it and tries to put himself in critique mode even though his brain is definitely not awake enough for it. "Oh, okay, I see what you mean," he eventually says.

"What? What?" asks North as he crowds around the sketch and nearly pushes Aster out of his seat, as if he can somehow uncover all the secrets of the universe if he stares at the sketch hard enough.

Aster points at the massive coat engulfing the character. "You're thinking too much of Russia, mate. You gotta think more _Game of Thrones_ , like what those wildlings wear. The coat's too bulky and plain and doesn't show off much of what she's wearing underneath. I mean, yeah, it makes her more mysterious if, say, we don't know if she has a sword or not, but she just looks like a teddy bear here. Remember Dr. Chan's class? She says we gotta grab the reader's attention from the get-go otherwise they won't be interested enough to keep going."

North deflates a little but nods. "Alright, I will make changes to design." Sandy gives him a smug look. "But she must keep bearskin coat. Bearskin coats are badass...did I say right?"

Sandy nods and smiles in approval.

Aster yawns and goes to put on the coffee. Afterwards, he grabs his laptop from where he left it on the coffee table last night and turns it on. It's been nearly a week since sign-ups closed and if his idea ends up being _at least_ as long as he thinks it'll be (even though he suspects with dread that it's going to turn out even longer if his track record is any indication), he wants to get started on it as soon as possible and make sure his writer will, too.

There's a new message from the comm waiting for him when he logs into his gmail. " _Yes_ , finally," he says to himself, feeling far more excited than he'd expected. For some reason, even though he never considered himself a particularly big anime fan, the BfAS fandom is just really good at bringing that out of him. He opens the e-mail, which reads:

 

> Dear bunnymundy, 
> 
> Thank you for participating in this year's BfAS Reverse Big Bang. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to e-mail the mods at any time. Also, please refer to this post for a list of deadlines and check-in dates. If you need to drop out, please contact the mods as soon as possible. 
> 
> Your writer is: **old-man-winter** (contact:  funtastic_baby@gmail.com)
> 
> We wish you good luck and, most importantly, to have fun!
> 
>  

" _Bloody hell, you've got to be fucking kidding me!_ "  
  


* * *

 

Meanwhile, several states northeast of Georgia, one Jackson Overland Frost is sharing Aster's exact sentiments. "God _damn it_!"


	3. Chapter 3

_I GOT THE EASTER BUNNY AS MY ARTIST. I BLAME YOU._

Tooth's text comes in less than a minute later.

_fkdjgaldkfjahahahaha suckerrrr_

Before Jack can reply, a box suddenly pops up in his gchat:

bunnymundy@gmail.com wants to be able to chat with you. Okay?  
[yes][no]

Jack stares at his screen, now one hundred percent certain that the e-mail is neither a mix-up nor a joke. What's worse, he's pretty sure that one of the mods, maninthemoon, did this on purpose. He and maninthemoon are kind of friends in that they are on each other's flists on Livejournal and mutually follow each other on Tumblr despite having never exchanged a single word, so he knows that the assignment wasn't an accident. There's no way maninthemoon isn't aware of his and bunnymundy’s rivalry...thing. He/she's the kind of person who knows everything about everything.

Jack also knows that he can probably get himself another artist if he kicks up enough of a fuss about it, except he'll come out looking like the bad guy (or worse, end up on fandom_wank _again_ ) since bunnymundy technically hasn't done anything to warrant a complaint besides being guilty of taking everything too seriously and, to be honest, he had fallen in love with his prompt the moment he read it:

"(Fantasy AU/Snow Queen fusion, May/July) May and July are childhood friends. When July gets kidnapped by the Snow Queen, May will do anything to get him back, even if it means going on a journey that could cost him his life." 

Jack doesn't usually write non-canon fic, but the images that came to his mind were too vivid to ignore. May is canonically the weakest character in the manga while July is the most athletic and therefore the strongest. It was going to be fun to write a fic where their relationship dynamics were reversed. What kind of thoughts would go through May's head before he decides to go after July? When does he find out he's in love with July--before or during his journey? What would May do when he finally finds July but inevitably has to have some sort of confrontation with the Snow Queen?

Jack had quickly skimmed through the rest of the prompts before finding himself back at the Snow Queen one, unable to ignore the plot bunnies (haha) already making their home in his head.

With a sigh of defeat, he clicks on the "yes" button.

A few minutes later, a box pops up.

 **bunnymundy** : Hey

And because Jack can't resist, he replies: 

 **me** : hey bun bun! what's up? :)  
 **bunnymundy** : Ha ha. You must think you're a regular comedian, don't you?  
 **me** : i'll be here all week, folks!  
 **bunnymundy** : Right. Well, if you're not going to take this seriously then I might as well save both of us some time and email the mods to have us switched.  
 **me** : no no, don't. i'm sorry, i promise i can be serious

Jack feels a bit of his soul die once he finishes typing that sentence. 

 **bunnymundy** : ...Really.

He can practically feel the disbelief emanating from his laptop. 

 **me** : i'm sorry about the nickname  
 **me** : and the easter comment  
 **me** : look, i know it's hard for you to believe and i don't blame you, but i really want to work on this. i think your idea is great, even if i didn't expect you to be my artist.  
 **bunnymundy** : Well, neither did I.  
 **bunnymundy** : Have you read the Snow Queen before?  
 **me** : no. it's a fairytale right?  
 **bunnymundy** : Yeah, by Hans Christian Andersen. I'll be drawing a lot of my art from it so I suggest you read it to get a sense of what the story is. I'll send you a link.  
 **me** : what? you're giving me homework now??  
 **bunnymundy** : Listen frostbite, I didn't sign up for the reverse bang just to get a mediocre writer. I don't want some stupid drabble, I want at least 5k words.

Jack grits his teeth. What does bunnymundy think he is, a high school freshman just learning what pathetic fallacy is?

 **me** : fine, if you want an epic i'll give you a fucking epic.   
 **bunnymundy** : Fine.  
 **me** : **fine**


	4. Chapter 4

Between his job at the chocolate store, class, and commissions that he desperately needs to catch up on, Aster barely has any time to work on the Reverse Bang project. Fortunately, the deadline for rough drafts isn't until November, a month and a half away, so he knows he'll have plenty of time to at least get some sketches done.

So he's surprised when, a week after his first actual conversation with old-man-winter that doesn't involve insults, the frostbite pops up on his gchat while he's in his Modern Art class. 

**Frost** : oh man i just finished snow queen and i can't wait to get started on this  
 **me** : So I take it that means you liked it?  
 **Frost** : yeah! a lot more than i thought i would actually. i never actually read andersen's stuff and i only know about the little mermaid through the disney movie  
 **Frost** : and before you ask, yes, i know what happens in the original version. i gotta say, i prefer the disney version a lot more

Aster tries to hide the grin on his face before his professor can see it. As much as Aster had felt like crying when he got the assignment e-mail, he knew that there was no way he could get paired off with another writer. He'll never admit it, but the little shit is one of the best writers in a fandom largely comprised of teenage girls (with the exception of old-man-winter, Aster has yet to find another male fan, making the two of them hot commodities, apparently).

 **me** : Yeah, a lot of people would agree with you. I need to start doing thumbnails but that's this weekend's problem.  
 **Frost** : cool. i'll start writing the first chapter  
 **Frost** : please tell me you don't need outlines. i'm not good at making them

Aster lets out a snort that earns him a strange look from his professor. He immediately schools his face into one that hopefully translates to, "I'm the very definition of a model student, please ignore me." Being a Master's student means that he can't just hide in the anonymity of a sea of a faceless students anymore--his class sizes are now in the double digits, making it ridiculously easy for his professors to actually remember who he is. His professor goes back to the Pollock paintings he's been discussing for the past ten minutes and Aster breathes a sigh of relief.

 **me** : No worries, mate. I just feel bad for not having gotten anything done yet.  
 **Frost** : haha, no sweat. we've still got a while until rough drafts are due anyway. btw, are you australian?  
 **me** : I was born there but my family moved to the states when I was 10. They went back when I started college and I just stayed behind.  
 **Frost** : oh cool. what year are you in?

And that's when Aster cringes. At the age of twenty-six, he always feels like he's about to get arrested any time he interacts with other people in fandom because, nine times out of ten, they're minors. 

**me** : First, but in grad school. You?  
 **Frost** : wooow, you're a lot older than i thought you were. i'm a freshman.  
 **me** : Older? What's that supposed to mean?  
 **Frost** : it means you're a grandpa  
 **me** : I guess that makes you a brat then

For the rest of the class, they trade light-hearted barbs, like they had always been friends. Aster learns a few things about old-man-winter during that time: he goes to Virginia State and is debating between majoring in History or English--either way, he has his heart set on going to teacher's college once he graduates, he got into the BfAS fandom two summers ago when his best friend linked him the first few chapters of the manga, and he is currently in class and bored out of his mind, just like Aster.

In turn, Aster tells him that he's working on getting his MFA in Illustration, how he wants to open his own studio one day, and how he will cut anyone who insults April.

He doesn't realize how much time has passed before his professor turns off the projector and people around him start packing up.

 **me** : OK, time to head home. I'll talk to you later?  
 **Frost** : kk. oh, that reminds me, i never asked you what your name is. unless you don't mind me calling you bun bun forever.  
 **me** : Smartass. My name's Aster. And yours?  
 **Frost** : Jack. nice to meet you Aster  
 **me** : The feeling's somewhat mutual  
 **Frost** : haha.

He doesn't realize how much fun he had talking with Jack until he gets back to the apartment and North asks him why he's smiling so much.


End file.
